BoxRec

Brockton, I believe records suggest that athletes are continually achieving greater performances than their predecessors so it might be unfair to compare eras in a head to head sense. Just because the best guys of one era are better head to head does not necessarily mean they are greater in my opinion.

Cojimar 1945 wrote:Brockton, I believe records suggest that athletes are continually achieving greater performances than their predecessors so it might be unfair to compare eras in a head to head sense. Just because the best guys of one era are better head to head does not necessarily mean they are greater in my opinion.

Not all records. Most major league pitching records such as wins, innings pitched, complete games, etc., were set >75 years ago. And unfortunately boxing has the sad distinction of being a dieing sport with far less athletes participating than in years past, so it's hard to imagine that the athletes are better when there are a fraction of the number who participated 50 years ago. Football, basketball, soccer, track, swimming, golf, tennis, etc., all have an increasing number of people playing each year, while boxing's numbers are dwindling with each passing year.

In general it's tough to argue that current boxers are better than those from the 40's, 50's or 70's. Some would be great in any era, but the general talent level is very thin.

If you are going to count all weight classes, you could make a case for almost any decade. Several decade have already been mentioed. For example in the 1960's there was:
Ali
Liston
Patterson
Tiger
Frazier
Foster
Napoles
Griffith
Benevenuti
Ortiz
Saldivar
Jofre
Harada
Famechon
Ramos
Elorde
Rodriguez
Giardello
Johnson
Pastrano

Of course there many others in the 1960's as well.
You could do this for almost any decade.
There were great fighters in every decade. Each decade lot of of good fighters at some weight classes but not at other weight classes.

Also many 70s fighters who were very entertaining but not champs.
Bennie Briscoe
Willie Monroe
Cyclone Hart
Kitten Hayward
Boogaloo Watts
Gypsy Joe Harris
Bobby Cassidy
Earnie Shavers
Jerry Quarry
Earnie Lopez
Ron Lyle
Mike Quarry


Many more.

Ambling Alp wrote:...You could do this for almost any decade.
There were great fighters in every decade. Each decade lot of of good fighters at some weight classes but not at other weight classes.

Excellent point Alp.